Quote from: Plumberman on February 17, 2018, 02:15:13 PM

Absolutely I thought that each BTC, LTC, ETH, etc,et, had a key??? Thats just kind of blew me away!!!

You are missing some of the basics and completely misunderstanding how bitcoin even works at all.

As a result, everything everyone is trying to explain is passing through your filter of misunderstanding before you try to follow along with their description. This is leading to even more misunderstanding and confusion on your part.

It does appear that you are finally noticing a few things (such as the fact that bitcoins don't have keys), but it is also clear that you are still struggling with the underlying concepts.

To get a grasp on the general concepts, I suggest pretending that you don't know anything about bitcoin (or at least assuming that everything you know is wrong) and then watching this video as if it is about something completely different than your current understandings:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBC-nXj3Ng4

Some of the specific details are generalized or simplified in that video, so it won't give you an exact understanding of every technical detail, but it is a good introduction to the more basic concepts.

Then once you've watched it, let me know if you still have some questions.

As has already explained, it isn't the bitcoins that have the keys. Each bitcoin address is associated with it's own key. So, when Coinbase sends bitcoins to a wallet on your computer, the bitcoins don't "become keyless" and Coinbase doesn't "send you the key". Instead, Coinbase uses the key that is associated with the address where they previously received the bitcoins. With a special mathematical function they can compute a signature of the transaction with the private key. Then they broadcast the transaction (with the signature) to the network. ALL the software on the network can use the address where Coinbase had previously received the bitcoins to verify the signature.

Note, it is impossible for software to generate a signature if all it has is the address or public key. Generating the signature REQUIRES the private key. However, it is simple for software to verify a signature if all it has is the address or public key. So, ONLY someone that has access to the private key can create a valid signature, but EVERYBODY can check to make sure that the signature is valid.

The transaction that they broadcast assigns some Bitcoin value to YOUR address (an address for which YOU ALREADY have the private key). Now, only you will be able to generate the necessary signature to spend those bitcoins since ONLY YOU have the necessary private key. When you DO choose to send those bitcoins somewhere, your software will use YOUR private key (which is associated with your address) to sign the transaction (proving that you are allowed to transfer that value). The entire network will be able to use your bitcoin address to verify your signature, and then the value will be assigned to whatever address you send it to (requiring a signature from the private key associated with THAT address if the recipient wants to send the bitcoin value somewhere else.